You can use as discrete, wire as you like. I had some enamelled wire to hand and it makes its easy to hide the wires in the branch of the tree

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Large Photo Baubles

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Hand tools and fabrication machines

3D Printer (generic)

I've used a Formlabs Form1, but any 3D printer will do

Story

I came accross these plastic baubles shells a while ago, and thought 'I could do more than just put a photo in them.' Since then I aquired a 3D printer, and decided to have a little fun that a hacker could knock together in a few hours. Chances are most people are likely to have most of the parts to hand and might want have some fun too.

The reason I used the Particle photon to drive the pixels is simple, once built, what ever you choose do with the pixels themselves, being able to flash over the air, means you can custom the code to your own choice, without having to dismantle the Christmas tree to make updates.

My code uses the particle time() function to map the red, green and blue pixels to hours, minutes and seconds. This means the colour is constantly changing.

Custom parts and enclosures

STL file for the support ring

This is a support ring to keep the Neo Pixel ring centered in the plastic bauble.

STL file for the support ring

This was designed using Design Spark Mechanical, but you can edit it for your own needs

Schematics

Neo Ring

16 pixel Neo Rings are jolly handy. They don't need a resistor in line with the data pin, and if you keep the brightness setting down (below 250) will not need an additional power supply. They are jolly bright so that shouldn't be an issue

Code

Bauble Code

Arduino

This is a simple code to drive the Neo pixels, in the Bauble. It uses the particle time function to alter the colour of the bauble baised on the time of day. By using the hours, minutes and seconds it present a constantly changing color.